UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss to visit Moscow amid rising Ukraine tensions

Britain is contemplating to send its foreign minister Liz Truss to Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Sunday, TASS news agency reported. The development came at a time when Russia and the West are at loggerheads over the former’s deployments of troops in the eastern borders of Ukraine.

“Such a query was received from the British side, the possibility of such a visit is being considered,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian ministry, was quoted as saying by TASS, without giving any timeframe for Truss’ visit.

On Saturday, RIA news agency reported that Truss was expected to visit Moscow in February for a dialogue with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on its borders with Ukraine, and the West fears Moscow is planning to launch a major offensive on Ukraine, which they invaded in 2014.

Moscow, on its part, rejected West’s concerns and ruled out any attack, but Russia did say it could take unspecified military action unless a list of demands are met, including a promise from NATO never to admit Kyiv.

A senior UK minister on Sunday warned of serious economic sanctions against Russia if it installs a puppet regime in Ukraine, after Britain accused the Moscow of seeking to install a pro-Russian leader there.

The visit of a head of the Britian’s foreign office to Moscow would be the first since Boris Johnson, now the UK Prime Minister, travelled to the Russian capital in December 2017.

A senior British defence ministry source said on Saturday that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had also agreed to talks in Moscow with his British counterpart Ben Wallace.

US, Germany plan sanction against Russia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of deploying more than 1,00,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and suggested that number could double “on relatively short order.”

While the US warned of economic sanctions, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that it could cut off Russia from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if it invaded Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 is an offshore natural gas pipeline in Europe, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

Amid the rising fear of a full throttle war in Europe, Britain has said that it had begun supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons.

Ukraine said it was prepared for the worst and would survive whatever difficulties come its way. President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the country not to panic. Talks between the NATO and Russia have yielded no result last week as Russia’s demands were not accepted